New Beginnings
by flyintherightdirection
Summary: AU Rheese. In which Sarah Rhodes finally makes it to Gaffney Chicago Medical Center.
1. Chapter 1

**_A/N: Hello! I'm back again…I can't seem to stay away haha. The request was made by the lovely keenler-mcswarek-girl to write a story in which Rheese were married from the start so this is my take on it._**

 ** _This is completely unrelated to my other works, I also have zero medical knowledge and I own nothing but the plot._**

 ** _AU in which Connor and Sarah have been married for a while, Connor started at Med the same time as in the show but didn't become close with the ED staff before transferring to cardiology. Sarah completed her student rotation and residency at a different hospital and has recently been offered a fellowship in emergency psychology by Dr Charles._**

* * *

This was not how Sarah had intended on entering Gaffney Chicago Medical Center after she had just been offered a fellowship. She had intended on arriving for her first shift early, with her things organised and in a calm and confident manner. She intended on arriving and making good impressions and to learn the ropes quickly.

She had not intended on arriving on a stretcher.

She blinked her eyes open in an ambulance, completely disorientated and wondering if she was having a very realistic dream.

"You're going to be okay. You were involved in an accident, we're on the way to the hospital. Just try to relax." The paramedic said, placing a hand on Sarah's shoulder to keep her lying down. "Try to stay still okay?"

"Yeah." Sarah rasped out, knowing that she shouldn't move her neck in case of extra damage. If there was one thing she had learned in her ED rotation as a student it was that you shouldn't move a patient until all the proper tests had been performed.

Her head was pounding, the pain seeming to vibrate louder in her ears than the ambulance sirens did.

She must have been unconscious for a while, she fretted to herself, because they arrived at the hospital soon after she woke.

"What do we got?" Someone called out above the noise of the ED.

"Female, late twenties, hit and run accident, broken leg, suspected concussion…" She vaguely heard the paramedics calling out her stats. She wanted to help, she really did, to tell them that she was a doctor too but her head was too sore and she felt like she had just done a 48 hour shift and was fighting sleep.

A blistering pain in her leg made her whole body spasm and she fought against the oxygen mask even though she felt like she was drowning.

"You're okay but you have to relax." A man with red hair was hovering over her, "Can you tell me your name?"

"S…Sarah." She gasped, holding back tears, everything hurt.

"Okay, is there anyone we can call for you Sarah? A family member? A friend?" A kind eyed woman in a nurse's uniform seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Everything was blurring.

"My husband." Her words were blurring together but she needed someone to tell Connor.

Connor.

Her Connor would be beside himself when he found out.

"Okay we'll find him, don't worry. What's his name?" The nurse asked.

"Connor."

"Stats are falling!" Someone called and the noise blasted through Sarah's eardrums.

A flurry of activity burst out around her and all Sarah could think of was that she wished she had enjoyed her last morning before she started her new fellowship, that she had stayed in bed like she said she would, that she hadn't gone to the food truck to get a surprise lunch for her husband.

* * *

Connor grabbed the first table he could to eat his lunch. He flicked at the screen of his phone.

Still no texts from Sarah.

He locked it and smiled softly at the photo of his wife that he had taken one morning while she was drinking coffee in bed while wearing one of his shirts. He suspected she was still sleeping, enjoying the last morning off between her residency and her new fellowship.

She deserved it. She had to be the most hardworking people he knew.

His thoughts were interrupted by Will Halstead sitting down at his table. "Hey man, mind if I sit and eat? This place is packed and the ED has been especially busy…" The other doctor nearly had half his sandwich finished by the time he both asked for permission and gave his explanation.

Connor couldn't blame him. The ED had always had a madness about it.

It was his one regret. The one niggle that he could never shift. He would have no regrets about pursuing cardiology under Dr Downey, and while he did had a knack for surgery, he did sometimes miss his trauma days. The unexpectedness and immediacy of it all.

He hadn't even spent a year in the ED but he kind of…missed it. Gaffney's ED was different to anywhere he had worked before. The staff were a team. Admittedly, something he hadn't been all that familiar with, but something that he sometimes found himself almost yearning for. They were a tight unit, they had each other's backs.

While he now spent his days bickering with Ava and waiting for more challenging cases from Dr Latham.

"It's all good." He responded, taking a sip of his coffee. "Anything interesting this morning?"

Will finished off his lunch while he contemplated the question.

"A toddler with a crayon stuck in his ear, a new outbreak of flu and a few concussions. Oh and a damn hit and run. Guy on his phone practically ploughed this woman off the road."

"Did she pull through?"

Will gave a half shrug, "Should do, but you can never be too careful." He slapped Connor on the shoulder, "Later man."

With Will gone, Connor told himself he was being paranoid.

But he rang Sarah's phone anyway.

It went straight to voicemail.

"Hey Babe, just checking in, hope you're having a good last day off. I'll see you later for dinner right? Love you."

He ended the call and told himself he was being stupid, there were thousands of women in Chicago, and his wife was probably still in bed like she said she would be.

* * *

"Hey there." Another woman in a nurse's uniform stood beside her bed as Sarah opened her eyes and took a minute to adjust to her surroundings. She was in a hospital. Gaffney. There had been a car and she couldn't get out of the way.

She felt a hand on her shoulder as she clamped her eyes shut at the horrible memory of the screeching of tires before the world spun around her.

"It's okay, you were in an accident, but you're in hospital now, we'll take good care of you." The woman said.

Sarah managed to breathe through the flashback.

"I'm April, can you remember your name?"

"Sarah." April smiled.

"Okay Sarah, the doctor will be back any minute to see how you're doing. Can you stay awake for me?"

She tried to clear her throat but the motion made her entire chest feel like it was on fire and she flinched.

"We'll up your pain meds, don't worry." April tried to get her to sit back.

"Hey there Sarah, good to see your awake." The doctor from before breezed in, passing a torch in front of her eyes. "It's good news, relatively, there doesn't seem to be any damage to your spinal cord but we still have to go through some routine checks and blood tests. How are you feeling?"

"I've felt better." She gritted out.

"I hear that a lot." He grinned as he checked her chart.

"Me too." She said just to have something to focus on other the fact that she was in a hospital bed.

"Really?"

She nodded as he asked for more blood tests. "I'm a doctor too."

"It's always horrible having to take the treatment instead of dishing it out huh?"

"You could say that."

That made him chuckle, "Say, that husband of yours you mentioned, he got a second name? We'd like to contact him, just to be safe, you know how it goes."

She did. So she wasn't out of the woods yet. It was never good news if they were rushing to get the next to kin.

"Doctor." She wheezed. "Connor. Here." Her head felt like it was filling up with cotton wool. "Rhodes. I'm Sarah Rhodes."

"We'll get him right away, don't worry." Will said, "Just worry about him, he worked with us here and never told us he was married. Just try to rest. We'll be back soon to check on you."

* * *

Maggie paged Connor while he was looking over case notes for his next surgery.

His eyes needed a break anyway, he admitted, as he stood up to head on down to the ED to clarify with Maggie that he wasn't on trauma today.

"Hey Maggie, I'm not on call today." He said when the elevator doors opened and the ED Charge Nurse was waiting for him.

"Connor, I'm going to need you to come with me." She said, placing a hand on his upper arm and guiding him with her into the ED. His blood ran cold. He knew that move, that was Maggie's move for patients' families.

His mind went into overdrive and he felt momentarily weak.

"Okay we have a woman, late twenties, she was in a car accident, she claims that she's Sarah Rhodes, your wife?" Maggie asked with a balanced look. Connor would have laughed if the circumstances weren't heart pummelling. Maggie didn't know whether to be outraged over the lack of information on his part during his stint in the ED or wary that the so called 'Sarah Rhodes' was claiming to be someone she wasn't.

"Where is she?" He nearly coughed out, "Maggie…" His voice was raw and broken and he needed to see his wife.

"Come with me, she's in trauma three." She said, leading him over. She didn't need any more clarification, she must have known from his expression that Sarah had been telling the truth.

Connor braced himself, thanking his lucky stars that Sarah wasn't in Baghdad. Maggie pulled back the door and let him in and…

He couldn't breathe but his body moved by it's own accord to her side. After everything he had been through in his life, his parents incessant arguing, the aftermath of his mother's dead, his friend's death by OD, his first day in medical school in Guajajara, he had never _once_ ever been this terrified.

Sarah was lying there, looking pale with a nasty cut on her head and her eyes were closed.

He placed a hand on her forehead, "You're going to be okay Sarah." He didn't know if he was telling her or just trying to convince himself.

Her breath seemed slightly shallow but nothing too serious and his fingers itched to get his hands on her file but he wouldn't couldn't leave her side.

He felt sick to his stomach. She was his everything. She had to be okay.

* * *

Everything was so bright. And loud. There was noise everywhere. Machines beeping, people talking. Sarah squinted her eyes open.

"Sarah?"

His voice gave her entire body instant relief, if only for a second. She turned her head towards the direction of his voice and leaned into his touch. He was running his thumb over her cheek and she tried to focus on that and not the pain.

It wasn't as bad as before, she noted, as she wiggled her toes and her fingers. Good movement, she thought, no obvious nerve damage…

"You should relax." Connor told her. "I can see you trying to self-diagnose." He tried to smile, but she could see the fear in his eyes.

"I'm glad you're here." She told him.

He wasn't able to talk so he placed a feather light lingering kiss to her forehead.

She opened her hand and he tangled his fingers with hers.

"Oh good, you're awake." Her doctor came in with April.

He glanced at the tablet in his hand. "How are you feeling Mrs Rhodes, you know your husband worked here for months and…" He was grinning like a Chesire cat and while Sarah appreciated his good nature, she could feel Connor tense his hand. Her husband was in no mood for joking.

"What's her progress Will?" Connor asked.

Ah, Sarah thought, her doctor must be the infamous Will Halstead whom Connor had butted heads with.

"She took a bad hit from that car." Will said. "Sarah you're lucky there was no internal damage, you have a concussion and a badly broken leg, along with a few suspected broken ribs and bruised lungs."

"Suspected?" She asked, her eyes brows furrowing.

"Yes. We were going to run the x-rays but something showed up in your blood work that we need to double check first."

"What?"

"What was it?" Connor echoed.

"There was some slightly elevated levels and I had Nat take a look and we want to run another test, just to be safe."

"What test?" She asked, her mind racing with possibilities.

"A pregnancy test."

* * *

 ** _A/N: I'm not so sure about this so I'd love to know if you think I should continue (I'm also not used to writing stories about established relationships so bear with me!). Any questions, opinions, feedback all welcome!_**


	2. Chapter 2

There were certain moments that Sarah remembered that would change her life. When her Dad walked out, when she got accepted to medical school, when Connor Rhodes asked her out, when they got married. And this.

This moment, with her lying in a hospital bed, with her husband's hand in hers and finding out that she could be pregnant.

"Yeah do whatever tests you need to." Connor rushed his words out, squeezing her hand, after Sarah was left at a loss for words.

Will nodded and relayed number of tests for April to order and Sarah found herself alone with her husband again.

"Are you okay?" Connor's voice broke through her mental block as she stared at the door. "Sarah, babe, talk to me…"

She opened her mouth and closed it again unsure of how to put into words what she was feeling.

Connor's face paled before her eyes as he noticed the tears welling in her eyes. "I know, I know, this is a lot in one day. Everything will be fine alright? It's you and me okay? We'll figure this out, I promise."

Truth be told, pregnancy and starting a family? That was their long term plan. They hadn't been trying to get pregnant. The timing was all wrong with her immediately impending fellowship.

"I'm not good with babies…I can't…"

"Sarah, hey look at me." Connor said, as he crouched down near her. "We don't know anything for certain yet…we'll get through this."

Bless him, she thought as he stroked her matted hair with his hand and tried to drown her in his intensely loving stare, he would do anything to reassure her, to calm her fears, to protect her. But she could see the hope lingering in his beautiful blue eyes. Connor had always been open about his desire for children _one day_ and dammit somewhere along the way she had begun longing for them too.

She was terrified she would be a horrible Mom, just look at the role model she had. But Connor was born to be a Dad.

"I'm…I'm happy." She smiled and choked out a happy sob, "We could be having a child Connor."

His face lit up exactly the way it had on their wedding day.

She had found that the best things in her life had been the surprises along the way, her move to Chicago, the opportunity in a double fellowship, her falling head over heels for a hot shot surgeon.

And a baby? Preferably with her hair and Connor's eyes, well, that just might be the best surprise of all.

* * *

Connor idly wondered how soon it would be before everyone in the hospital would know he was married. He laughed to himself as he glanced at his watch, he wouldn't say it would take very long.

Sarah had dozed off to sleep as they awaited the test results and Connor was just glad to see her resting.

Doris had come by to give him a chair so he could wait in Sarah's cubicle but he knew it was just a cover to try and sniff out the drama. He didn't miss the not so subtle glance she made at Sarah's ring finger.

Sarah had worn her rings today, seeing as it was her day off. Connor sighed as Doris had left the room. It wasn't that they had meant to keep their marriage so quiet.

They had been married before he came to Gaffney at first, and it wasn't like he bonded with anyone. Sure, there had been nights out to Molly's but he preferred to spend his evenings with Sarah than a bunch of people he was forced to see in work every day. He wasn't antisocial, it was just how his career had gone, he didn't make friends in work. He didn't see the point. He had competed his entire way through his work life to get that trauma fellowship. So he didn't let his guard down, even at Gaffney. And he had just never brought up the topic of his marriage.

And when Sarah had been looking into fellowships and the chance to work in the same hospital came up, they decided it would be best to let it remain quiet. She had kept her maiden name for practicing medicine. She was still Dr Sarah Reese, no one needed to know at home she was Sarah Rhodes. They didn't want his career and reputation affecting her own, not when she was starting out.

Their plans were completely shot now.

But Connor couldn't bring himself to worry too much over it now, not when his eyes kept drifting to Sarah's stomach and their possible child.

Who would have thought it?

Connor Rhodes might be a Dad.

* * *

Will arrived back with a brown haired woman in tow. "Sarah, this is Dr Manning, our ED's paediatrician. So we got your test results back…"

Sarah nearly worried that she would break Connor's hand with the vice like grip she had on it.

"And…?" She nearly didn't dare breath, didn't dare hope.

"Congratulations. You're pregnant, about five weeks along." Dr Manning smiled.

"Wow." Sarah whispered, she blinked back tears, "Is everything okay? It didn't get hurt in the accident right?"

"We don't think so, but we'll run some more tests, just as a precaution." Dr Manning explained.

"And now we know, we can get those x-rays of your chest and leg done safely." Will said, "We'll give you a few minutes and someone will be with you to bring you up to radiology."

"I'm pregnant." She reiterated once she was alone with Connor again.

"You're pregnant." He echoed as his eyes tentatively drifted toward her abdomen.

"Yeah." She smiled placing a hand on her lower stomach.

"Are you okay?" He asked. Because he knew. He knew she was still tentative about motherhood from their late night conversations and early morning confessions. After so long together it felt like he could sometimes read her mind.

"I'm okay." She nodded, her neck twanged in pain, "I'm slightly terrified, but…"

"That's our baby?"

"That's _our_ baby." She laughed, as happy tears escaped her eyes.

* * *

Dr Daniel Charles made his way down to the ED to check in on the prospective heart transplant patient that had just been brought in, _again._

"Oh, Dr Rhodes, is that my transplant patient?" He nearly bumped into the cardiothoracic surgeon as he made his way out of one of the trauma bays.

Connor Rhodes blinked at him, startled by his question, "Uh no. No. That's actually Sarah. Dr Reese? My wife."

"Oh?" After a long drawn out process of interviews and more interviews for the vacant fellowship position, Daniel had been thrilled to offer the position to Dr Reese. She had come highly qualified, with excellent references and a determined glint in her eye. And she had come across as more eager than the other candidates, considering she wanted to complete her role as part of a double fellowship along with emergency medicine. Sharon and Dr Stohl had been happy to offer her the joint position as it saved the department time and money recruiting another emergency fellow.

And he had been surprised by the woman when, offered the position, she decided to disclose the information that she was in fact married to Dr Connor Rhodes. She wanted to make sure that she had got the position on her own merit but if their relationship would impact on the decision or staff relations then she would have to decline. He admired her honesty. He had taken a shine to her quite quickly.

"Is she alright?" He asked.

Connor ran a hand through his hair, "She will be, she got hit in a car accident. No permanent damage, thankfully but…"

"That's quite a scare." Daniel nodded, "Do you mind if I pop in and say hello?"

"No. Please, go ahead, I'm just running to get something to eat."

Daniel knocked on the glass door and peaked his head in, "Hello Dr Reese, I think you're a day early for your first shift." He smiled softly, "I heard you were involved in an accident, how are you feeling?"

"Oh Dr Charles." She started, sitting up, "Hi. Yeah, it was not the morning I had planned."

He took the empty seat, "I would say not," They chatted about the accident and the morning and he made sure that she knew that she wasn't expected back to work, or really to start work, until she was feeling better.

The position was saved for her.

"I think I made quite the entrance." She admitted with a soft smile.

"Oh really?"

"Yes, well it's not every day the wife of the hospital's most eligible bachelor turns up in an ambulance." She grinned, "Connor's Rhodes' fortune and good looks get mentioned even at Lakeside Memorial."

"Is that so? Well then I'm afraid to say you just might have broken a few hearts today."

Will Halstead knocked and came into the room, Sarah's file open on the tablet, "Hey Dr Charles." He stated, surprised by his presence. "I think you've got the wrong room, I didn't page for a consult."

"Oh no Dr Halstead, I know where I'm needed, I was just having a chat with Sarah."

"Okay." He said, flickering his gaze between Daniel and Sarah, obviously confused by the connection. "Sure."

"May I tell him how we know each other?" Daniel asked her.

"Oh! Yes! I forgot to mention it, I've had a lot of information to process today…" Sarah said.

"Dr Reese here is going to be my new psychiatry fellow." He told Will.

"Wait, you're _the_ Dr Reese? The new emergency fellow?" Will's attention turned to Sarah.

"Well, yeah, I'm completing a double fellowship, but yes I'm Dr Reese." She smiled, "I kept my maiden name for practising medicine."

Will pretended to groan, "Wait, so you mean to tell me I have to work with _two_ Rhodes' now?" He laughed.

* * *

 ** _A/N: Thank you so much for such a wonderful response to the first chapter, now you all have me excited to see where this story will bring me! I hope I can make this a good story for you all :)_**


	3. Chapter 3

"Connor, _I'm fine_." Sarah told her husband for the tenth time that morning as he pulled into the hospital car park for her first shift at Gaffney.

"Are you sure? I'm sure Dr Charles wouldn't mind you taking a few more days off…" He turned in his seat to face her, worry etched into his face.

"I'm ready to start this job, I promise." She said, leaning over and placing a hand on his cheek and kissing his lips.

"You'll let me know if you don't feel well or if…" His mind was working overdrive thinking of things that could happen to her. He did have some reason for it, she admitted, the morning sickness was taking its toll already but she had to start sometime.

"I promise." She reiterated.

"Okay." He sighed, "I'm sorry." He huffed as he hung his head and sat back in his seat, taking her hand in his, "I'm way too overprotective…"

"I think it's sweet." She reassured him, giving his hand a squeeze. She bit back a smile because overprotective was an understatement. Ever since she had been released from hospital Connor had tried to put her on permanent bed rest both for her recovery and for the baby, he had waited on her hand and foot, as if she couldn't love him anymore.

"But I have to go, I don't want to be late on my first day." She said, glancing at her watch.

They got out of the car and made their way to the doctors lounge together, deciding it was better to put all the rumours and half-truths to rest and show everyone that they were, in fact, married and that it wasn't some convoluted story.

"Good luck." He told her as he left her side for the doctor's lounge while she carried on and made her way up to the psychiatry floor.

Every time she entered the floor for her interviews, it practically hit her in the face.

 _Elizabeth Rhodes Memorial Psychiatry Ward._

The words on the wall dominated the space, practically screaming at the woman's daughter-in-law.

She had mixed feelings about it.

She hoped that Connor wouldn't visit her too much up here, she knew he despised the fact that his father had thrown around his money and Elizabeth's name as a way of trying to one up his son in his place of work. To try and get one over on Connor who was working on a career and life away from his father. The words would just haunt him even more than his mother's death already did.

But Sarah couldn't admit that it felt like fate that she ended up with a job here. She wished she could have met Elizabeth, the woman who had left nothing but happy childhood memories for Connor when they weren't tainted by his father. She liked that she felt close to Elizabeth here, that she could work on helping people.

She rubbed her ring finger, missing the rings she had kept at home today. Her engagement ring had been extra special but it wasn't Elizabeth's. Connor had said there was no way he was going to taint their marriage with the bitterness of his parent's marriage but he had used his Grammy's ring, Elizabeth's mother's ring that she had kept as part of Connor's trust fund, separate from his Rhodes' one. After all this time, he still wanted to keep his Mom close and Sarah admired that.

"Ah, Dr Reese, you're here early." Dr Charles was walking by and noticed her standing aside. "Feeling better I hope?"

"Much better, thank you so much." She and Connor had both decided to keep her pregnancy under wraps until their twelve week scan, just to be safe.

"Well I'm just glad to hear it, do you want to follow me? We're having a team meeting, I thought it would be a good way for you to meet the rest of the staff up here."

She followed the older doctor into a small conference room where the other staff were just arriving. It was the change of shift so Dr Charles went through any new patients, any issues that should be raised and at the end got around to Sarah's first day.

"As some of you know, we have our new fellow starting today, this is Dr Sarah Reese. I hope you make her feel welcome and I'm sure she'll be another valued member of our team."

She smiled at the warm introduction, even after only meeting the man a handful of times, she had really taken to him straight away.

She was set with shadowing another fellow for the morning, to learn the Gaffney method of research, paperwork and follow-ups.

"Welcome to Med." The woman shook her hand, "I'm Dr Ella Flemming."

The other woman was friendly and let Sarah ask all the normal mundane first day questions without making her feel inferior.

"So I looked into your file, top scorer in your class in med school, honourable mentions from all of your superiors during your residency? I have to ask, why didn't you stay on at Lakeshore?" Ella asked as she showed Sarah through the Med IT system.

Sarah sighed, "Honestly? I just…" She paused, she didn't know how honest she could be with her new colleague but Ella had been nothing but open all morning, even going as far as to tell the residents to stop ogling Sarah's ring finger. "I never _fit_ in Lakeshore. The work was great experience but it never felt like…home. I never fit in with my colleagues, it just wasn't an atmosphere I could work happily in for another program you know?"

"Well Med is good, the culture is more open, most of my friends are people I've worked with here actually." Ella said and Sarah's heart twisted slightly. She wanted that, she wanted friends. She had been the nerd in high school that nobody wanted to be friends with, she was too focused in medical school to even think of trying to make friends and Lakeshore hadn't been all that welcoming. "I'd say you'll fit right in here."

After having lunch with some of the psychiatry doctors and trying to commit their names to memory, Sarah was moved down to the ED for her next induction. She had texted Connor to let him know that she was doing fine so far and that she would meet him in the lounge after work.

She was half wondering why she had opted for a double fellowship in the first place, because having two different departments to get familiar with on the first day suddenly felt like a lot. But then she got out of the ED and into the frenzied and chaotic atmosphere and she felt _alive._ The urgency of it all really invigorated her, she had to be lightning quick in the use of her hard earned medical knowledge and try and create order in the chaos.

"Well I'm glad to see you standing and not on one of our gurneys. How are you feeling Sarah?" Will asked as she approached the ED bay.

"Well I'm just as glad not to be on the gurney." She smiled, "I'm feeling better, thanks."

"Nice to meet you under better circumstances Dr Reese, I'm Maggie, the charge nurse around here." The woman behind the desk introduced herself. "Dr Stohl was supposed to give you your formal induction but I can't seem to get a hold of him."

"It's a regular occurrence." Will chipped in, "Anyway, Maggie's the real boss around here right?"

"Halstead, stop trying to sweet talk me and get to work, there's another ambo on the way." Maggie shot Will a death glare and he scattered pretty quickly. "Dr Choi?"

She called to another doctor walking past, taking off his set of gloves.

Ethan Choi, Sarah had spent a lot of time trying to get information out of Connor about her new colleagues, he was the chief resident if she wasn't mistaken.

"Yeah Maggie?" He asked as he wandered over.

"This is Dr Sarah Reese, our new ED fellow, would you mind showing her around? Dr Stohl…"

Ethan smiled, "Say no more." He rolled his eyes, "Hi I'm Dr Choi, I'm the chief resident." He shook Sarah's hand with a firm grip.

"Nice to meet you." She smiled.

He led her around the different bays and their uses, showed her where the stockroom was and the IT systems. "I would try and introduce to the other staff but we can never quite get them all in one place for long, life as an ED doctor right?" He smiled, "But if you have questions or anything, I'll be around here somewhere and everybody here is pretty good and we're all happy to have another hand on deck so you should be fine."

"Dr Choi, Dr Reese?" Maggie called, "I got two patients incoming. Dr Choi, you're going to Bagdhad, April?"

"I'm on it." The nurse who had treated Sarah seemed to appear out of nowhere and rushed with Ethan into the treatment bay.

Sarah spent no time standing idle, there was work to be done. "Dr Reese you're going to treatment three."

She may be new, but medicine was her comfort zone.

"What do we got?" She asked the paramedics as they rolled in the gurney. They called out the stats of the fifty year old man who had been involved in a car accident. He had been driving and had a suspected heart attack.

A nurse appeared in her treatment bay, "Hi, I'm Dr Reese." She called out as the paramedics cleared out and Sarah and the nurse could get to work.

"Monique, welcome to Med." The woman smiled as Sarah tested the man and called out tests for Monique to send for.

"Stats are dropping." Monique called and Sarah jumped onto his chest.

"Okay." Sarah watched the monitors as she pumped the man's chest, "Four of epi and get me the crash cart."

She did just that and Sarah took the paddles, "Charge to one hundred, clear!" She shocked the man's chest and waited with bated breath for half a second before his heart rate reappeared on the screens, "Okay page cardiology, tell them we're on the way up, he's going to need to get to the cath lab stat."

An orderly and Monique started to push the trolley as Maggie stood by the door, "Eh Maggie, which floor…?" Sarah began to ask but Maggie had read her mind.

"Third floor, they'll be waiting for you." Maggie pressed at her scanner, "Dr Reese?"

Sarah looked back as she followed the trolley, "Yeah?"

"I think you're going to fit right in here."

Of all the cardiology staff.

The elevator opened and Connor was stood on the other side.

Sarah smiled to herself, she always loved the look of him in scrubs and how assured he was in himself when he was practicing. But she had to park the fact that she was taking to her husband, she was talking to Dr Rhodes, not Connor.

She relayed the information as he steered the trolley toward the cath lab, he nodded along taking in the stats and didn't look back at her as he disappeared with her patient behind the doors.

If anyone had any qualms about them working in the same hospital and just seen them, all worries would be put to rest, they were professional and efficient.

But no one else had seen the way he squeezed her hand on the trolley bar.

It was a small gesture, but it was reassuring and it meant the world to her.

Sarah followed Monique back down to the ED, "So this is your first day?"

"Yeah, great introduction." Sarah smiled.

"I'm just getting used to things around here." The nurse smiled shyly, "But it's a good place to work."

"That's what I'm hoping for." Sarah admitted.

Monique cleared her throat, "I'm sorry, I have to get this out of the way, everyone's talking and it's just…are you _really_ married to Dr Rhodes?"

"Yeah, I am. Just over three years now actually."

"Okay, it's just sometimes around here I don't know what to believe..." Monique said, "Anyway, I'm just glad to have another girl on our ED team. Maybe now for Maggie's annual team day when it's men versus women, we might actually win."

Sarah watched the nurse get back to work and crossed her fingers, team bonding and a good place to work? It was exactly what she was looking for.

"Ah here is our other over achieving doctor…" Will caught her as she walked back into the ED, "Sarah you remember Nat?"

"Hi Sarah, how are you doing?" Dr Natalie Manning asked as she shook Sarah's hand.

"Good, _we're_ good. Thanks." Sarah couldn't help but smile.

"What Will means is that I'm currently practising emergency medicine and paediatrics."

"Psychiatry and emergency medicine." Sarah replied.

"Oh I know, Dr Charles has been down here a few times and doesn't stop mentioning how he stole you from Lakeshore."

"Dr Manning, Dr Reese?" Maggie called.

"No rest for the over achievers huh?" Natalie smiled as they both went towards the family that were coming in accompanying a child on a trolley. "And hey, if you ever want to talk about anything, I had my son while working here so you know. Us double majoring ED Moms have got to stick together right?" Natalie said under her breath so just Sarah could hear.

If anyone saw the happy tears in Sarah's eyes, she was going to blame it on the hormones.

But she couldn't help but think that Maggie was right, maybe she would fit in around here.

* * *

 _A/N: Thanks so much for the continued amazing support, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it! Any feedback, questions, suggestions, all welcome! :)_


	4. Chapter 4

"Do we have to go?" Connor asked, half way between being serious and joking. He wasn't actually sure if he wanted to go.

"Yes we do, it's my first invitation and after my first week, I thought it would be nice. Pretty please?" She asked, placing a light kiss on his lips.

Go to Molly's after work with people he worked with?

He was doing it purely because he loved his wife.

"Okay, fine, I'll go." He sighed.

"I love you."

"I love you too." He replied on instinct, "But what exactly am I going to have in common with these people? I see them in work, do I have to sit around discussing cases at the bar?"

Sarah bit her lip, "I'd like to think we could be friends. You never know, you might like them if you give it a chance."

"Uh huh." He said as he sat down but Sarah wandered over to him, taking his hands in hers, "Remember we talked about this, letting people in?"

"I do. I'll play nice for you, I'm not promising developing a bromance with these people." He warned.

"I know. Thank you." She said, sneaking a hand behind his neck and kissing him again. He smirked into the kiss, pulling her closer, "Do we really have to leave?" He asked between kisses.

He could never and would never get enough of her.

She laughed, a sound he cherished because he had been there when there were times she had nothing to laugh or smile about.

"Yes, now stop trying to distract me, let's go."

* * *

He may have grown out of his childhood faults and habits, no more partying like he did in high school, he had been working on keeping his ego in check and working hard enough to make people forget he was a Rhodes. But his pride still clung to him.

And it was his pride that wouldn't let him admit that maybe Sarah had been right, maybe he should give the Gaffney staff a second chance. That maybe he had had a good time at Molly's.

He hadn't really given them a chance in the first place, he had been new, competitive, strong headed.

He was still competitive and strong headed when it came to his career but he had also grown and realised that maybe they weren't all out to stall his progress or bitterly snipe about his money and reputation.

Maybe to this mismatch of people working in such chaos, he could just be Connor, the surgeon.

But like hell would he admit it to Sarah anytime soon that he was reconsidering.

"It wasn't that bad was it?" She asked, squeezing his hand as they made their way to their apartment.

"No, it wasn't _that_ bad. It doesn't mean I'm best friends with Halstead now." He warned.

"I'll take what I can get." She smiled.

* * *

They went about their nightly routine and were lying in bed in silence later on when Connor broached the elephant in the room.

"How are you feeling about tomorrow?" He asked, as he placed his hand over Sarah's that was rubbing circles onto her stomach.

Their 12 week scan.

She laughed rather breathlessly, "Excited, nervous, slightly overwhelmed…" She admitted.

"Hey, I'll be right there remember? We're in this together."

It was a rather foreign concept to Sarah. Having someone be there no matter what. Good days and bad days. That kind of loyalty and love and care was something she couldn't learn about from a book, instead she had learned it off Connor.

Having a Dad who ran off when she was little and a Mom who seemed to view her as a slight inconvenience and who thought the only merit to Sarah's medical career was so that she could use it as chit chat with her legal clients, Sarah never thought she's find someone who _wanted_ her.

She had forged on through school, despite the bullies and through medical school and her residency despite the mean girls and snarky commentary about her bedside manner, all alone.

Unsure of how to go about making her friendly acquaintances into friends and devoting herself to her career with her lack of confidence in finding a significant other.

But then she had met Connor.

He saw her as a medical student with stubbornness but lacking self-confidence and she had been met with a hot shot surgeon trying to hide his own insecurities.

And everything had somehow fallen into place.

"I know." She told the dark room.

"At least the morning sickness should wear off soon huh?"

"Yes please." She laughed. Natalie had been amazing in work, covering for any time Sarah had to excuse herself and flee to the nearest bathroom.

And Connor of course had been her rock, making multiple different breakfasts for her every morning despite his shift work in the hopes that she could keep something down.

"Still blows my mind we'll see this little one tomorrow." He admitted, she could _hear_ the smile on his face at the very thought.

"I know." She whispered. "It'll make it so much more real. Should we have started buying things for them yet? I mean how long does it take to decorate a nursery exactly?" Her worries were running away on her again. It happened when she was tired or when she started trying to plan too much.

This whole baby was kind of out of her control and she desperately wanted to be prepared.

"Babe, we have plenty of time. We'll get through tomorrow first and I'm sure Claire would be over the moon to recommend interior designers to attack the spare bedroom."

Sarah smiled, Claire Rhodes was a force to be reckoned with.

"We can put the scans in a frame right? Right beside our wedding picture." Her Mom had never been into showing affection, she had never really felt like the house they shared was a home and she would not do that do her child.

"Sounds like a good plan."

"I hope our baby has your eyes." She said, turning her head to look at him.

"Oh yeah?" His entire face lit up. She hadn't meant to, but apart from the mechanics of the pregnancy, the morning sickness, the tiredness she hadn't really gone as far as talking about the baby to Connor that much. She knew he wouldn't push her, she was still overwhelmed, but she didn't want him to think that she didn't care, that she didn't love their child a million times more than she imagined she could already.

"Yeah. Or my nose, or maybe your ears." He pulled her even closer.

"I just hope they don't have the unfortunate Rhodes feet." That made her laugh.

"I don't mind really what they look like, once their healthy." Another thing she was worried about, she may be a doctor but she was seriously considering starting to specialise in paediatrics just to make sure she could mind her baby right. Science she could do, but nurturing? She wasn't so sure.

But lying there with Connor beaming about her and their child, she was sure as hell going to try.

* * *

"Dr Rhodes, glad to have you here today." Maggie greeted him as he crossed by the ED bay.

"Glad to be here Maggie." He smiled, and he was, he _lived_ for the days that he was on trauma.

"Uh huh, we'll see about that." She said as she glanced at the screen in her hand. "The Fire Department is after battling a building fire, multiple casualties on route." Her eyebrows furrowed as she read more. "Look alive everybody! There's been a fire, ambos will be rolling up any minute…"

No rest for the trauma surgeon.

It was straight to action.

Ethan and Natalie grabbed the first two gurney's and he was left with the third, a patient who had fallen badly trying to escape.

It was a struggle but he managed to get the patient stabilised enough on the ED floor to get him up to surgery.

He caught his first breather after leaving the patient in the hands of the neurology team and assisting one of the newer residents with a patient with critical levels.

"What a morning huh?" Will asked when Connor entered the doctor's lounge.

"Yeah. Tell me about." He nodded grimly as he poured himself a coffee from the pot that Will had made.

"So I was surprised to see you at Molly's last night." Will commented.

"Yeah, well Sarah's persuavsive when she wants to be."

"You should come out sometimes anyway man."

"Really?" Connor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah." Will shrugged, "I mean you've always been a pompous egotistic surgeon but you are more bearable lately."

"Thanks." He deadpanned.

"Just saying…" Will grinned, "You never know we might actually get along one of these days Rhodes." He gave him a friendly slap on the back as he went out to face the ED again.

At one time Connor would have said that pigs would fly quicker than he would make friends at work.

Now, however?

Maybe his opinion was changing.

He checked his watch, it was still only 11 o'clock, he sighed, wishing the scan would get there quicker. It was like waiting for Christmas morning as a child.

Still, he went back into the fray, jumping straight into action again when the next ambulance rolled up. He always liked to make the most of his trauma shifts, they were few and far between. He was glad he had pursued cardiology but…

But it was becoming monotonous. He rarely had unseen surgeries before, the ones that made his own heart race and challenged him. The only excitement was bickering with Ava and even that was becoming mundane.

He had always put it down to missing David Downey but now he was thinking about it more. He had completed his mandatory two years worth of hours of his thoracic fellowship months ago and was just continuing to work until the new intake happened.

But he felt comfortable in cardiothoracic surgery now. Top in his field. But maybe he was too comfortable.

With Sarah split between the ED and psychiatry ward even on his trauma shifts, he didn't see her much at work and he thought that was probably for the best. He didn't want to intrude on her work life, monopolise her time or keep others away. She was fitting in and came home every day with nice things to say about her colleagues, he didn't want to show up there every day and ruin it all because he wasn't sure about trusting his colleagues as anything other than colleagues.

It was something he had to consider.

* * *

She was a bundle of nerves all morning. Would four o'clock _ever_ get here? Sarah finished off her rounds in the psychiatry ward, swapping notes with Ella and helping some of the residents out with cases they had. She made her way to the cafeteria for her break, all she could stomach was water.

"Hey, today's the big day huh?" Natalie appeared at her table, taking a seat.

"Yeah, something like that." She replied.

"How are you feeling?

Sarah made a face, not knowing how to put the various emotions she was currently experiencing into words.

Natalie smiled, " _That_ is exactly how I felt!"

"Really?" Sarah heaved a sigh of relief.

"Definitely. It just makes it so _real_ doesn't it?"

"Yes!"

Every day the staff she was working with gave her another reason for being happy to move to Med.

"Don't worry about it, the OBs are so nice here, they make it all so easy. Is Connor going?"

"Yeah, he cleared it with Maggie last week to take some personal hours."

"I still can't believe he's married." Natalie admitted, "I think you broke a lot of hearts around here."

"I've heard that." Sarah laughed along.

"You two seem great together. It was good seeing you last night at Molly's. I'm so overdue for a girls night, I'll have to round up April and Maggie and you and we should have organise something."

Did Sarah mention that she was loving working at Med?

The doctor let Sarah in the door of the consultation room after she arrived for the appointment. "Hi there, how are you feeling?"

"Nervous." She admitted with a shy smile.

"Everyone usually is." The older woman smiled, "So I hear you're one of the new fellows here then huh?"

"Yeah, psychiatry and emergency medicine."

"Wow. How are you finding things?"

"Great actually." Sarah said as the doctor told her to take a seat on the bed and lie back.

"I'm glad to hear that. So I'm going to roll your top up now, is that okay?"

"I have to wait for Connor. He should be on his way. Can we wait?" She could not do this without him. Her heart gave a pang for Natalie, she didn't know how she did this whole thing alone.

"Of course, I was just setting up, we won't do anything important without him."

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. Connor was almost late.

The doctor asked her a few questions about her health and how she was finding things.

"Sorry I'm late." Connor huffed as he knocked and let himself in. Sarah instantly relaxed.

He introduced himself to the doctor and took a seat at Sarah's side, interlacing his hand with hers and giving it a squeeze and placing a reassuring kiss on her forehead.

"Don't worry about. So I'm going to put this gel on your stomach okay? It'll be a little cold."

It was cold but Sarah didn't even really register the fact, she was too busy worrying about her baby. She needed everything to be okay. She didn't want to have somehow messed things up already.

"Okay, so just give me a minute." The doctor murmured as she moved the scanner in circles over her non-existent bump.

She squeezed Connor's hand so tight she was worrying about his blood flow but he didn't even blink at it, instead just lifting her hand to his mouth to kiss it, telling her it was all going to be okay.

"And there we have it, see here…that's your little baby, head, feet, all the organs look good so far. I'd say you have one little healthy baby in there."

Sarah blinked through her happy tears to see her baby on the screen. She didn't know if she or Connor had teared up first.

"There's our little baby huh?" He whispered, as choked up as she was.

It was a picture she'd remember forever, the start of their little family.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five.

"You think it'll stay like this?" Will pondered as he took his place beside Sarah at the ED bay, finishing off his own paperwork. Sarah bit back a smile, the ED had been very nearly calm and organised so far that day. It was one of those very rare occasions but she wasn't about to jinx it.

"I don't know…" She said, filling out the rest of the form to discharge her latest patient. She had spent her last two shifts in psychiatry having residents shadow her and had been looking forward to getting back to the ED.

"Man, what is up today? It is so quiet around here." Dr Noah Sexton had rambled past and decided to throw his own opinion into the mix. Sarah had gotten used to the resident's rather large ego.

Sarah idly wondered if the younger doctor was going to need a bed in one of the trauma bays as a result of the practically _murderous_ glares that Will and Maggie sent him.

"Noah, how many times do I have to tell you? You should never say that!" Maggie hissed.

"Oh come on Maggie, don't be so superstitious, it's not like it's going to get crazy because I said it's quiet." Noah argued. Maggie just handed him more paperwork instead of giving him an answer.

Sarah checked for the next patient but the waiting area was practically empty.

"I'll take the next one, you should go sit down and have a rest." Natalie told her. "You have got to be tired. I don't remember how I functioned when I was that far along."

Sarah was sixteen weeks along and feeling the tiredness. Right now their apartment resembled a bomb site of baby reading material.

Sarah could never be too informed. She had books, magazine subscriptions, notes from her doctor. She tried to hide the list of day-cares and childminding options away from Connor. He was on board for her excessive planning but that might have been taking it too far.

Claire had jumped at the idea of decorating the nursery but Sarah found herself more involved in the process than she had planned. She just wanted to be more involved in everything to do with their baby. She wanted to make sure their child knew it was loved, by both their parents.

She checked her phone as she grabbed a seat in the lounge and took a breather.

 _Love you_

The message from Connor read. Even when they had only started dating he would text her and see how her day was going. And since she had moved to Med his messages were less of a personal pep rally to get her through the day and more of a sweet remark.

Sarah smiled like she always did, like she was a love struck teenager. He still had that effect on her and she had a feeling he always would.

"How's your day going?" April asked as she arrived and started making herself some coffee.

"Not too bad, yours?"

"Could be worse." April shrugged, "Hey Maggie was thinking of organising a girls night soon, you in?"

"Me?" She couldn't help it, everyone was welcoming and she was fitting in but she was still managed to revert to the socially awkward and lonely girl she had been as a teenager.

"Yes you! It'll be fun." April tried to persuade her but Sarah was already sold.

"Hey, Maggie's after calling, all hands on deck." Ethan popped his head in to alert whoever was in the lounge.

"It'll give us something to look forward to." April said as she led the way.

"Listen up everybody. Fire Department's after evacuating a burning school, we had missing teens, burn patients, lots of hurt and confused kids alright. Everybody on full alert. Look alive people." Maggie declared as Ms Goodwin stood by her side.

"I'm going to get Noah back for this." Maggie mumbled as an afterthought as Sarah rushed for gloves.

"Maggie, doctor numbers?" Ethan called.

"I'm calling every available doctor in the hospital Dr Choi, I just hope it's enough."

The ambulances arrived too soon as everyone tried to clear the entrance ways and any non-critical patients already in the ED.

Maggie called names as the gurneys rolled in and Sarah felt that familiar pull in her gut, it was do or die time.

"Dr Reese, you're going to trauma three!" Maggie said as Sarah rushed to the ambulance crew accompanying her gurney. "Dr Manning, Dr Sexton trauma four. Dr Halstead you're going to Baghdad, Monique you're needed in Baghdad."

Sarah quickly assessed her patient, a girl got in the blaze, badly burned, unconscious, faint heartbeat.

She checked the pupil response as another voice replaced the paramedics who had left.

"What do you need?"

"I can't find a vein, get me an IO line and I'll intubate." She gave the orders.

"Okay."

"We have an airway. Line?"

"In. What's the stats?"

Sarah pushed the fluids, started the oxygen and hooked the patient up. "Wow…all in all, heart's stable. I've got this, go."

Connor would surely be needed elsewhere.

He was gone before she had registered the fact they had just worked together. Study together, run practice cases, heck even cook together they had done. But work? She had always wondered if it would be awkward or have blurred lines between personal and professional. But it had felt like an effortless dance.

Sarah reverted her attention back to her patient and asked the nurse that came in to help her stabilise the girl as much as they could before they'd sent her to the burns unit.

After her shift Sarah was just glad to be able to blame her tiredness on her pregnancy not her inability to keep up. To say that taking a double fellowship was ever going to be anything other than time demanding and hectic and more than slightly stressful was a lie.

But she still wouldn't change it for the world, not as Gaffney Med. She didn't dread going to work in the mornings for her shifts as she had done for the past three years. She knew the rest of the staff were on her side. And it made all the difference.

And okay, maybe it did have something to do with the fact that she could catch glimpse of her husband during the day. It didn't hurt.

Speaking of which…

"So I have this hot date with this beautiful woman tonight…which colour suit do you think I should wear? Black, grey, navy?" He asked as he leant up beside her locker where she was packing her things.

"Oh you do, do you?" She asked with a smile playing on her lips. "I'd go with black."

"Good to know." He said, taking her bag from her hands.

"I can carry it you know. Pregnancy doesn't leave me completely helpless." She told him.

"I know it doesn't." He said as they walked out and towards her car. "But you're carrying our baby, let me do something."

He wanted to be involved as much as she did. One thing was for sure, it was going to be the most loved baby in the world.

 _ **A/N: Hi! I'm back, sorry for the ridiculous wait between chapters. I hit a bit of writers block but now as season 4 looms and I'm worried about Sarah, I've jumped back into this story. Hopefully it won't be too long of a wait for the next chapter. Thanks for reading!**_


	6. Chapter 6

"Connor!" She called in a louder voice than she intended. The result was hearing a loud crash and her husband cursing before he burst into their bedroom.

"Sarah, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

She immediately felt bad, she had ruined their first day off together in weeks already and it wasn't even breakfast time yet.

"Sshh." She hushed him and beckoned for him to come closer to her. She lay her head back on the pillows and tried to lie very still. She had been pretty sure she had felt something…

"What…? Are you sure you're alright?" He asked in a whisper, now climbing onto the bed to sit beside her.

She broke into a smile the second she felt it again, she didn't know if he would be able to feel it, but she took his hand anyway and placed it on her lower stomach.

"Oh. Oh, Sarah that's…" He tripped over his words and she knew he could feel it too. Their baby was saying hello.

According to her books and research, she could start feeling the baby kicking around twenty weeks but she hadn't really expected it to actually start this soon.

Breakfast, apparently, could wait. Connor made himself comfortable beside her and they stayed there long after the baby had stopped it's little kicks.

It wasn't such a bad start to the day after all.

Now that the morning sickness had eased off, Sarah could actually eat breakfast. As soon as her stomach started growling about an hour later, Connor hopped up to finish whatever he had been in the middle of making when she had interrupted him.

She had a shower, putting on one of his shirts to lounge in, one of the benefits of not having to leave the apartment that day.

These kind of days were rare, but just made her want to enjoy them more. It was crazy to think that in just a few months, their days of being just the two of them would be no more.

They had always been a private couple but their world was going to expand soon. Claire was adamant she would be the best aunt ever and the way she was talking, she wanted to move in next door just to see them more, Natalie told her she had to accept her offers of babysitting and then there would be the obligatory visits from the baby's grandparents.

The thought of that alone was enough to made Sarah's stomach nauseous again.

Her mother, she could deal with at a distance and had long made peace with the fact that she would never get the love and support she yearned for from her, but the thought of her visiting was tiring. It was times like that when Sarah missed her own maternal grandmother. For all her Mom's lack of attention, her grandmother had always cared, showed Sarah love and affection before she died suddenly when Sarah was twelve, leaving her even more alone in the world than before.

Luckily she had married the right man. Connor for all his adamant reassurances that he was not a _Rhodes_ like his father, could turn on the charm and keep her Mom talking until it was time for her to leave. And therefore let Sarah off the hook of having to listen to her Mom's tales of success while making snide remarks about Sarah's life.

Connor's Dad was an entirely different kettle of fish. To say that he and Connor had a fraught relationship was an understatement. For the first couple of months of dating, Cornelius Rhodes had quite frankly _scared_ Sarah and she quickly learned that her husband and his father had drastically different views on Connor's childhood. It was when Cornelius had tried to pay her off to stop dating his son because she hadn't the right pedigree that she decided she wasn't scared of him anymore, he was a bully who was afraid of losing control. And she would like hell let him control her and Connor's relationship, and was adamant he wouldn't get too close to their child either.

A point which Connor fervently agreed on.

"Are you sure you don't mind me kicking you out of the house tonight?" Sarah asked, hugging Connor as he was making some eggs.

"I suppose I'll get over it." He tried to hide his smile.

"Are you sure…"

"Sarah, as long as you're happy, I'm happy." He turned to wrap his arms around her waist, "And they're nice to you so I'm warming to this whole 'be friends with people from work thing'"

"Better be careful you don't get too exited about it." She teased, "Next thing you know you'll be wanting to renew our vows and having Will as your best man."

He laughed in return and kissed her before getting back to breakfast. Leaving Sarah to trawl through their music collection for a playlist for that night.

Maggie had put her foot down last week and demanded everyone organise their calendar and clear a night for a girl's night out. Which had quickly turned to a girl's night in when Sarah had finally officially told them about the pregnancy.

Maggie had also started to make her sit down more and ensured she had all the bathroom breaks and food she needed. Nat had reassured Sarah that Maggie had fussed over her too during her pregnancy but regardless, Maggie was now Connor's favourite person in Med.

So Maggie, April, Natalie and Monique were calling over to Sarah's tonight. Sarah felt it was only fair that she host the night after she had derailed the bar crawl idea.

Sarah had not let Connor live down the fact that Will had invited him to Molly's seeing as his girlfriend was abandoning him for the night too.

They spent the day relaxing together, catching up on research, both baby and work related, watched a cheesy movie and Connor read while she played the piano he had given her as a birthday present after her much loved, slowly dying keyboard finally gave up.

It wasn't long before she had to properly get dressed and Connor left for Molly's. The women arrived right on time, April announcing she had just manged to shake Doris before she left the hospital.

Sarah thought it would be awkward for a little while, while she tried to act as hostess and get to really know these people but it all went smoothly after Maggie demanded she sit down and enjoy herself rather than fussing over them and Monique launched into a story of her latest bad first date.

"Honey, the answer is that your get yourself a doctor, look at Nat and Sarah, they're doing it right." Maggie said.

"Hey, Will and I, I mean, we're not that serious yet…"

"Please." April interrupted Natalie's excuses, "That man has been following you around like a puppy for years. He's serious."

"Be glad you didn't have to be around and watch the never ending will-they-won't-they." Maggie informed Sarah.

"Okay, okay, just tell me this. How on earth does a girl bag someone like Connor Rhodes?" April asked as she poured the wine. Which just sent the others into a fitful of giggling. Obviously the night was going well.

"By frequenting the same diner at unsociable hours and being stubbornly naive while he thinks he knows it all." Sarah summed up in one breath.

"Oh you can't just tell us that and leave it there!" Maggie protested.

Sarah had never really had that before, people to gush over Connor with. When they were dating, sure she was friendly with some of the other students in her class and she would mention her new boyfriend in passing but they were never close enough to ask any further questions.

She smiled, resting her head in her hand, "Well we apparently were this 24 hour diner's best costumers, Connor was always in late and I was always in early before classes but one morning, I don't he stayed too late and I arrived too early and we were the only people there and the owner stuck up a conversation that we were both doing medicine. We didn't want to talk..." She laughed thinking of the memory, Connor didn't trust people and she didn't think people would like her. "I was certain I would go into pathology and he was certain he could do no wrong. Then we just kept bumping into each other until he offered to take me out to eat some proper Chicago food, and the rest is history guess…"

Sarah shrugged, thinking the women might get bored of her talking and want to move onto to something else but they surprised her and ended up going through her wedding photo album instead.

With multiple yawns and the knowledge of early starts the next morning, her guests decided the girls' night in shouldn't go too late but left rather reluctantly with promises to do it again sooner.

Connor arrived home not long after, with hair whipped from the windy night and his ever reliable leather jacket.

They went to bed pretty quickly, considering the big day they had the next day. Their twenty week scan. Even though neither had a preference for girl or boy, Sarah wanted to know now if she could. She knew a surprise would be nice at the delivery but with her now perpetual state of semi-panicking and organising, she needed all the certainties she could get.

"Did you have a good night?" She asked, nestled up against Connor, tracing her fingers over his heart.

"Yeah, you?"

"It was great actually." She admitted with a smile.

"I'm glad." He said dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

He was too quiet, she could tell something was up. "What's going on in that head of yours?"

"I've been doing some thinking. And I want you to think about it…" He said.

"What is it?"

"What would you think of me coming back to work in the ED?"

* * *

 ** _A/N: Thank you so much for reading!_**


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